By : Anjum Naim
What is common in between 37-year old Piyush Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana and 30-year Sameena Khan, recipient of "Golden Apple Award", an American esteemed award, for the best performance in the field of education? Both hail from Maler Kotla city of Punjab state in India. Sameena Khan is another feather in the hat of Maler Kotla. These days she is in her ancestral land to meet her parents, and people particularly students and academicians are coming to meet her. Sameena says, the esteemed Golden Apple Award enthused me to open a school in her ancestral city, on the lines of school affiliated to Chicago Public School, and include people in all her teaching experiences, which rendered hopeful results.
Golden Apple Award is considered as one of the prestigious educational awards in America. It is the brain-child of Martin J. Koldyke, a very active personality in the educational arena. He was associated with Invest Banking. The award was designed to present to Chicago teachers for their extraordinary services. He believed that the teachers who render their yeoman services in the field of education, deserve awards and prizes as an acknowledgement of their significant services in making a more consolidated and bitterly educated society.
"This award is a great honour for me. I could only dream it, a dream, which at last came true," says Sameena.
Golden Apple selects 10 best teachers for this prestigious award every year since 1986. These selected teachers become the members of Golden Apple Academy of Education. They chalk out plans to make teaching functions more useful and meaningful, and develop the syllabus in the light of their valuable experiences. Moreover, the awardees are bestowed upon with many more honours, public rewards and benefits. They can get admission in any number of courses in their choicest subject in North-Western University of Evanston, free of cost. Besides, they also get a laptop computer along with cash awards of $ 3000 each.
One thousand teachers had filled up the nomination forms. They had to present 16 write-ups on different topics related to education, on the basis of which 100 of them were short listed. Thirteen out of them reached the final award whereupon 10 were selected finally. Sameena was one of them.
Thirty-year old Sameena was born in Ethiopia (Africa) where her parents were in teaching profession those days. Thereafter, she migrated to Nigeria. She obtained a Bachelor's degree in Micro Biology from Kadona Polytechnic, Nigeria which is renowned throughout the length and breadth of Western Africa. In 1994, she shifted to her brother in America wherefrom she took admission in Master degree course in Biology in the University of Wisconsin. She, later on, joined North-Easter University to complete her Master Degree. She also obtained Master's Degree in Education, with distinctions from Chicago University of D. Paul. Because of her long stays at different places, she is not only well versed with English, Hausa (Nigerian), Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi, she also has experience of a multi-cultural society. That is why, when she got an opportunity to teach children of African origin, she did not feel any unfamiliarity. "When you make your profession your hobby, it starts giving you joy, and in turn you get involved in finding newer and better ways to adorn it," says Sameena.
‘‘ You were always a science student, and you got your Master's Degree in Science, why, then, did you go for teaching profession?” Sameena replies with smile on her face, "Teaching is in my genes. My father as well as my mother are professional teachers. My father always says, medical and teaching professions are the most revered professions and these activities are termed as "continuous charity" in Islamic terminology. In the beginning, Sameena had a desire to become a medical doctor but she had natural attachment with teaching. So she participated in a competition held under the aegis of Global Educator Outreach Programme wherein more than one thousand candidates from 23 countries. Sameena was among the 50 selected countries. Chicago Public School is considered as the third largest school system in America. More than 600 schools are affiliated wherein about 409,000 students receive education. Sameena was appointed as a science teacher in Clark Magnet School, which is affiliated to Chicago Public School. She started her teaching career from this very institution.
Sameena says that pupils of African origin study in her school. In the beginning she felt it difficult to tackle and teach them, but since I passed my childhood amongst African children, I started tackling them very soon keeping their psychology in view. I got the speculated success and student came closer to me. I too was over joyous in teaching them, " teaching is not a profession, but a passion for me", says Sameena.
"What were your initiatives, which improved students' performance?" In reply, Sameena says that she teaches science to students of 6th, 7th and 8th standards. She observed that students were reluctant to science and dislike to attend the classes. School records showed that most number of drop-out cases were from 8th standard. Its prime cause was their disliking for science. She made all out efforts to make it more interesting. She told, "First of all I brought out the students from the classroom and engaged them, more intensively, in the lab, and created their interest in science through practicals. Observations and experiments helped them very much and the reluctant students started joining the classes." Her efforts bore the fruits and grades of students showed improvement. Illinois Standard Achievement Test scores increased rapidly. According to a school press release, in 2001, 34% students scored equal to the national average. In 2003, it increased to 46, in 2005 to 80, in 2006 to 84.6 and in 2007 to 89.6.
School's administration was very happy over Sameena's activities, her dedication to the school, her hands-on activities and her innovative teaching methodologies. This was the reason why Principal of the school, Dr. Henry West nominated her for Golden Apple Award. On the basis of nomination by her colleague teachers and the school administration, she has already been awarded Chicago Area Annual Award, Com-Ed 100 and the Drive Award 2006, which is awarded every year by Chicago Public School.
Sameena Khan asserts," All children deserve excellent teachers, and the institutions, which give importance to this phenomenon, success knocks their doors." He remembers her father, how serious he was in this regard. In India, teachers have always enjoyed a respectable position. That is why, educational standard has always been superb in India. According to her, Indian students are considered as trustworthy in America. It is why Indian students are in majority amongst the alien students in America. In her opinion, American concept of teaching is gaining ground rapidly in India. "What is needed most is to inculcate interest in them for learning."
